Corn Pops' Racially Sensitive Cartoon Gets Called Out

“Why is literally the only brown corn pop…the janitor?”

Novelist and poet Saladin Ahmed recently called out Kellogg’s Corn Pop cereal on Twitter for their racist packaging. On the Corn Pop box in question, Ahmed noticed that there was only one non-yellow-colored corn pop in the midst of the busy illustration. This corn pop seemed to have brown skin, and was the only one that was featured in what seemed to be a blue uniform while waxing floors.

On Wednesday morning Ahmed tweeted at the company asking, “Why is literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor?” Kellogg responded several hours later on the social media site saying, “Kellogg is committed to diversity and inclusion. We did not intend to offend - we apologize. The artwork is updated and will be in stores soon.”

Ahmed, writer of Marvel’s Black Bolt Series and 2012 novel Throne of the Crescent Moon, went on to say in subsequent tweets before Kellogg responded that, “but when you see your kid staring at this over breakfast and realize millions of other kids are doing the same…” After Kellogg’s response to Ahmed, he wrote back saying that he genuinely appreciated the rapid response from the company.

Ahmed tweeted later that evening that, “today I used the computer in my pocket to get a cereal company to make their boxes less racist what even is the 21st century.” This is a great example of how social media can incite change, thank you, Saladin!